Cultural Bag
By: BenettM

In my family sports is a huge value. Everyone in my family plays some sort of sport either competitively or for exercise. My mother runs for exercise but my sister runs for her school, Valor. My sister is always ecstatic when she wins her races. My brother and I play basketball and football. My brother plays baseball in the spring but this year I will play lacrosse. All of us come back reeking of sweat, dirt, and determination in our eyes. Yearning to someday hold up a gold medal and know that we have succeeded.

In my room I have a silver hook holding up a chain linked gold necklace with a cross hanging on it. I t feels extremely smooth and when you run your hands across it, you here the chings and changes of the chains colliding with one another. I received this elegant necklace on the special day of my first communion. It symbolizes my belief that if you have faith in God, everything will be all right.

On the kitchen counter at my home we have a picture of my dogs Duke and Bailey. Every time I come home from some place, the first sound I hear is them scrambling to their feet. I see them race down the hallway. I feel their nails pierce my skin as their tongues brush against my hands. I always get a very special feeling when I am around these two psycho dogs. My dogs symbolize that even in our worst days, it really doesn't take much to lift anyone's spirits.

Everyone in my family has a bracelet hanging on their dresser. This is a rough, tawdry looking bracelet because it is as old as all of us. When you walk and this magnificent bracelet is on your wrist you here the chings and changes of the force your movement provides them. This bracelet symbolizes that no matter what a member of our family does, we will always love each other unconditionally. I don’t know how my family would live if we didn’t have these magnificent silver bracelets to keep us together no matter what happens.

Last in my Cultural Bag is my education. My family really does value are education. Tyler (my brother), McKenzie (my sister), and I always get very close to straight A’s because we know that we have to have a great education to truly be successful in life. We all realize that the chances of being a sports star are very slim so, we put all of our effort into having an outstanding education. The second we get straight A’s we have a jolt of pride surge through are bodies. Our education symbolizes that if we honestly try our best, we can do anything we set our mind to. Without a fantastic education there are not many jobs you will be able to do when you are grown-up.